Colorado Springs Hotels

Colorado Springs Hotels

Hotels in Colarado Springs are often required for tourists who need short term accommodation in the city. Some tourists may want a hotel that has good views, good prices, luxury, good parking and a good reputation. Some visitors to the city may prefer a cheap hotel that have good prices. They may want a hotel in a specific location in the city or just near the city.

colorado springs hotels

Much tourism in Colorado Springs is attracted to the surrounding area, most famously Pikes Peak. The city has numerous trails and parks due to its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, making the city a popular destination for its scenery. With the mountains as close as they are, Colorado Springs has also gained fame for its rock formations and other geological features. Tourism is the city's third largest industry.

Pikes Peak (originally Pike's Peak, see below) is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, 10 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County. It is named for Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. At 14,110 feet, it is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners. Drivers race up the mountain in a famous annual race called the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Colorado Springs was founded in August 1871 by General William Palmer, with the intention of creating a high quality resort community, and was soon nicknamed Little London because of the many English tourists who came. Nearby Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods made the city's location a natural choice.

Within two years his flagship resort the Antlers Hotel opened, welcoming USA and international travelers as well as health-savvy individuals seeking the high altitude and dry climate, and Palmer's visions of a thriving, quality resort town were coming true. Soon after, he founded the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a critical regional railroad. He maintained his presence in the city's early days by making many grants or sales of land to civic institutions. Palmer and his wife saw Colorado Springs develop into one of the most popular travel destinations in the late 1800s United States.

The town of Palmer Lake and a geographic feature called the Palmer Divide (and other more minor features) are named after him, and a bronze sculpture of Palmer on a horse without its front legs raised (denoting a natural death and not one caused during battle or afterwards from being fatally wounded in battle), is prominently displayed downtown in front of Palmer High School, the center of a busy intersection.

Colorado Springs' present downtown location, where General Palmer first founded the city, was partly due to Palmer's dislike of nearby rough-and-ready Colorado City (now called Old Colorado City, and not to be confused with present-day Colorado City) and its many saloons. Palmer ensured his new planned city stayed alcohol free by buying a huge tract of land to the east of Colorado City. Legally, Colorado Springs stayed dry until the end of Prohibition in 1933, but practically, alcohol was readily available. Conveniently located druggists advertised whiskey, ale, stout and beer for "medicinal purposes."

In its earliest days of 1859–1860, Colorado City was a major hub for sending mining supplies to South Park, where a major strike in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was found. After the Cripple Creek gold discovery in 1891, ore mills in Colorado City processed much of the gold ore at the Golden Cycle Mill using Palmer's railroads. The affluent, who made money from the gold rush and industry, did not stay in Colorado City but built their large houses in the undeveloped downtown area of Colorado Springs (i.e Wood Ave.). Early pictures show several large stone buildings like Colorado College, St. Mary's, the library, and the county courthouse sitting in large empty plains. This is unique during this period, to pre-build a city's civic infrastructure in stone with wide streets laid out before there was a population to justify the expense.

Colorado City remained the county seat of El Paso County until 1873, when the courthouse moved to Colorado Springs.

In 1891, Winfield Scott Stratton discovered and developed one of the richest gold mines on earth in the nearby Cripple Creek and Victor area, and was perhaps the most generous early contributor to those communities and to Colorado Springs.

After he made his fortune he declined to build a mansion as the other gold rush millionaires were doing; instead, in later years, he lived in a house in Colorado Springs he had built when he was a carpenter in pre-gold days.

In Colorado Springs, he funded the Myron Stratton Home for housing itinerant children and the elderly, donated land for City Hall, the Post Office, the Courthouse (which now houses the Pioneer Museum), and a park; he also greatly expanded the city's trolley car system and built the Mining Exchange building, and gave to all three communities in many other ways, great and small.

As Stratton's generosity became known, he was also approached by many people looking for money, and he became reclusive and eccentric in his later years.

Spencer Penrose also made his mark on Colorado Springs in its early years—though not until two decades after its founding. Penrose started as a ladies-man and an adventurer. After making a fortune in the gold fields of nearby Cripple Creek in the 1890s, he married Julie Villiers Lewis McMillan, and settled down.

Penrose used his wealth to invest in other national mineral concerns and financed construction of the Broadmoor Hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, the Pikes Peak Highway, what is now known as Penrose-St Francis Health Services, and established the El Pomar Foundation, which still oversees many of his contributions in Colorado Springs today.

The flow of gold and silver ebbed as the decades passed, and Colorado City's economic fortunes faded with it; the miners and those who processed the ore left or retired. Because of the healthy natural scenic beauty, mineral waters, and extremely dry climate, Colorado Springs became a tourist attraction and popular recuperation destination for tuberculosis patients. The healthy waters in Colorado Springs contained so much natural fluoride that some peoples’ teeth developed Colorado Stain. In 1909, Dr. Frederick McKay of Colorado Springs discovered the Colorado Stain connection and that a little fluoride added to water would prevent cavities, according to the permanent health exhibit at the Pioneers Museum. In June, 14th, 1950 Colorado Springs annexed Roswell which was founded in 1888 by coal miners and became a neighborhood. Other locations such as Austin Bluffs, Broadmoor, Woodman Valley, Pikeview, Papeton, Knob Hill, Ivywild, Stratton Meadows, Stratmoor, Elsmare, Cimarron Hills, Kelker, Stratmoor Hills, La Foret, Gleneagle, Skinners, and Colorado City (now called Old Colorado City) became the part of Colorado Springs. Old Colorado City however is located on the west side of Colorado Springs is a historic district and on the National Register of Historic Places. Its old Victorian brick buildings and main street currently offers several tourist, boutique, and antique shops.

Latter 20th Century military boom

Colorado Springs saw its first military base in 1942 shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked. During this time the U.S. Army established Camp Carson near the southern borders of the city in order to train and house troops in preparation for World War II. It was also during this time that the Army began using Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. It was renamed Peterson Field and used as a training base for heavy bombers (the airport and base still share parts of the flightline).

Modern tourism

As new medicines for tuberculosis were introduced, and British tourism declined to the United States during the World Wars and depressions, Colorado Springs was faced with declining tourism. The mass ownership of automobiles, the building of the National Highway System and the decline of Passenger Rail (currently not available to the city) brought a new kind of traveler to Colorado Springs and is a driving force behind how the city's tourist attractions operate today.

Colorado Springs Downtown, the oldest part of the original city, planned by founder General William Palmer, has many shops and interesting buildings, including the city's earliest high rises. The Lon Chaney Theater, housed in the Colorado Springs City Auditorium and numerous civic and private buildings in the area are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Pioneers Museum, originally the county courthouse, houses an extensive collection of early city history. The Pikes Peak Center houses traveling and local musical and theatrical performances.

Old Colorado City is a National Historic District with many art shops and home to the Michael Garman Galleries. One of the country's many Carnegie Libraries is located here. Tourist attractions north of Old Colorado City include Buckskin Joe Frontier Town and Railway, Flying W Ranch a cowboy ranch.

The Old North End, home to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the American Numismatic Association, and Colorado College. The district has some of the finest examples of Queen Anne (Victorian) Architecture in the city and was the home to some of the original city's most well to do citizens. Dozens of mansions in the area, along with many buildings on the Colorado College campus are National Historic Buildings. The Van Briggle Pottery kiln works, founded in 1899 and still operating, specializes in art nouveau vases and decorative tiles.

Memorial Park and its adjacent areas have been home to the Printer's Home, the Firefighter's Museum, the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, the United States Olympic Training Center, and the two oldest hospitals in the city. The area has consisted mainly of houses constructed directly after World War II for young families eager to move to the suburbs.

The Broadmoor Neighborhood, incorporated into the city in the 1980s, has been home to the Broadmoor Hotel , Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun (final resting place of Spencer and Julie Penrose), and nearby Seven Falls.

The North End, Primarily consisting of newer suburbs, is home to the sprawling campus of the United States Air Force Academy[ famous for its unique architecture, particularly its 17-steepled cadet chapel. The Focus on the Family visitor center, children's center, and head offices are located on the North End, with tours available of facilities.

Attractions placed or that have been placed in theneighborhood:

Academy Riding Stables
Cave of the Winds
Giuseppe's Depot Restaurant, built in and maintaining the downtown 1880s railroad depot
Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway - ascends to the summit of 14,115 foot tall Pikes Peak
Manitou Cliff Dwellings
ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy
Security Service Field
The World Arena
Theatreworks
Bristol Brewing Company

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